Right-wing group's mailer warns of "Obamavilles"

This has to be one of the most audacious mailers ever. The 60 Plus Association, a shadowy conservative group that's spending big money this cycle, has dropped a new mail piece in Virginia targeting Dem Rep. Gerry Connolly with a rather creative reading of economic history.

The mail piece -- which was sent over by a reader -- features black and white photos of Depression-era bread lines and Hoovervilles, and warns that Dem policies are on the verge of creating "Obamavilles":

The mail piece warns that Dems are poised to pass more of their economic policies during the "lame duck" session -- more stimulus, more spending -- and asks voters to call Connolly's office in protest:

What's particularly interesting about this mailer is that the "Hooverville," of course, was a symbol of government inaction in the face of the poverty and widespread misery of the Great Depression. But the 60 Plus Association, which is devoted to free enterprise and less taxation, is warning that "Obamavilles" will result if we don't roll back government.

Separately, you all will be encountering more and more of this kind of stuff in your states and districts as we enter the final stretch of the midterms. Please let me know what you're seeing out there.

UPDATE, 2:18 p.m.: As a commenter notes, it looks like this group's agenda is heavily focused on preventing the high end Bush tax cuts from expiring. The mailer warns of tax increases to come during the lame duck session -- tax increases that presumably will create Obamavilles.

That ain't nothing compared to the '08 NoVA mailers we got from the Virginia GOP. TMP posted a bunch of them. Remember the pictures of terrorists made to look like Obama and pictures of Ayers and others.

Someone needs to contact those who sent out the mailers above to explain that was the result of what the current Republican politicians would have let happen to the U.S. following this latest collapse. The Republicans wanted to double down on Hoover economics and not do a thing. The pictures above would have been the result of no TARP, QE2 and no stimulus.

Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund has a powerful new ad hitting Colorado's airwaves, reminding voters just how bad Buck is in his attitude toward women.

"""But before this scandal even made it into a TV spot, which we knew from the moment it broke that it would, it was already harming Buck in polls--just from the press coverage. We can't say exactly what the polls will look like after a week of "buyer's remorse" in prime time, but Buck's not going to like it."""

President Obama is not one to beat his chest, and say stuff like; make my day, and bring it on. That was the last guy in the White House.

If you need someone who will go around issuing premature threats, and saying stuff such as: you are either with us or against us, then Obama is not your man I happen to like his calm demeanor, and absence of childish braggadocio.

I think that it would be stupid to start threatening a veto now, before he knows how the election results turn out, or if he will even have to face such a decision.

If he started threatening a veto now; what would be the very next thing The Republicans would be claiming, and the Conventional Wisdom Claiming MSM would be braying about.

They would be saying:

President Obama admits that Republicans are going to win back the Senate, and he will be forced to veto their Tax extension bill.

Portman has added a new quirk to his privatization plan, in a pretty clear attempt to calm the nerves of those who rightfully worry about their Social Security being subject to the whims of the markets:

During the debate and in the “spin room” with reporters afterward, Portman insisted he has pledged not to cut benefits for retirees. Instead, he said he supports allowing young people to take a small portion of their Social Security taxes to set up personal accounts to invest as they see fit. But he insisted if they lost money, the government would step in to make them whole again.

This idea is simply absurd. In addition to the substantial costs associated with a traditional privatization scheme — which would force the government into trillions of new borrowing — Portman would add the cost of bailing out the accounts of those investors who lost money.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/21/portman-security-scheme/

It's not too late to come to your senses Ohio. John "Lehman" Kasich and Rob "Privatize" Portman are bad for the Buckeye state.

"Enhanced Preventive Care Benefits
There will be no copay and/or coinsurance charged for preventive care services that follow the applicable medical plan's preventive care guidelines, as long as these services are provided by an in-network provider."

There's loads of these changes on my benefits.

I think I'll post em all on my blog so people can read em if they accidentally end up there...lol.

"Enhanced Preventive Care Benefits
There will be no copay and/or coinsurance charged for preventive care services that follow the applicable medical plan's preventive care guidelines, as long as these services are provided by an in-network provider."

Did your premiums change? up/down or not at all?

Personally, I'd prefer a plan where I pay 100% for the preventive care and the insurance kicks in if I have a catastrophic event.

We need to at last call this for what it is: This is America in retrograde, thoroughly engaged in a spasm of exaltation of the stupid and the mediocre. Now, there is a significant cohort of the population that recoils at this notion, and, led by its priestess Sarah Palin, calls this the viewpoint of an American "elite." Well, yes. We have always been called to greatness — we have always been exhorted to excellence. America is an elite nation, and it didn't get that way by being led by people who didn't know that Africa was a continent and not a country. We did not become the greatest power the world has ever known, the shining city on a hill, by being determinedly dumber than the generation that came before, by surrendering (for long) to our most vile nativist passions, or allowing ourselves to be led (for long) by the morons and the fearful. People who wander into each new day, misunderstanding it as thoroughly as they had the day before, did not make this country great. In fact, it is this kind of ignoramus that has always — always — been nothing but a drag on American progress.

What's particularly interesting about this mailer is that the "Hooverville," of course, was a symbol of government inaction in the face of the poverty and widespread misery of the Great Depression. But the 60 Plus Association, which is devoted to free enterprise and less taxation, is warning that "Obamavilles" will result if we don't roll back government.

....................

I read it as they being nostalgic for The Great Depression, and that is why they want to Usher in a new one, and they blame Obama for not letting the Bush Great Depression catch fire.

Everyone AND EVERYONE HAS TO PAY, OR THE COSTS GET SHIFTED TO SOMEONE ELSE.
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Someone better to get to this guy and explain the principles of insurance. Insurance is the pooling of risks and the spreading of costs to all members of the pool.

and nasty liam simply doesn't get it. The point is clear as more people obtain "coverage" under mandates from the liberals the cost of that coverage for everyone will rise. so now my premiums go up so that people can obtain "prevention services" of dubious value without copay.

Every time the government meddles the taxpayers pick up the bill. Every time.

Liberals are just not interested in basic facts of life. All they appear to care about is taking money from productive people and giving it to non productive people.

He was a top lobbyist at Fannie Mae during the housing bubble, when Fannie fought — with Democratic help — to avoid any restrictions or curbs on its work to inflate home values and get more people under mortgage. Before that, Donilon was a lobbyist at O’Melveny and Myers, where Fannie was a client.

In 2008, according to his financial disclosure forms, Donilon was a paid consultant for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Apollo Investments.

TOKYO – Toyota is recalling 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the U.S. and Japan, for brake fluid and fuel pump problems, the latest in a string of quality lapses for the world's No. 1 automaker.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday that it will call back for repairs about 740,000 cars in the U.S. and 599,000 in Japan. The remainder are in Europe and other markets around the world. Honda Motor Co. also said it would recall an undetermined number of vehicles because of the same issue..

...............

There goes relying on consumer ratings responses to surveys.

It appears that pride of ownership was leading many of the Toyota owners to claim their cars were much more reliable than they really were.

Toyota conducted many silent recalls through the years, but those problems never got reflected in the owner ratings submitted to the Consumer Reports surveys.

I still am amazed that Toyota continues to use the slogan; Toyota Moving Forward, after so many of them could not be stopped from doing just that.

The point is clear as more people obtain "coverage" under mandates from the liberals the cost of that coverage for everyone will rise.

Posted by: skipsailing28 | October 21, 2010 3:48 PM

Sorry skip but that point is not at all clear as the purpose of the mandate is to require the people that might choose not to get insurance (this would be the young and healthy) to purchase insurance. This, in fact, skip, is intended to reduce the cost of insurance overall. Hence 12Bar lamenting the lack of understanding from the right of the concept of risk pooling.

BTW, skip, what do you think of your boy Portman's latest social security scheme?

@12Bar Don't feel badly I take the bait far too often. It's especially easy if you've had a grinding day. Today is payroll at my place and I feel relieved that we were able to meet it for yet another week. Just have to keep on keepin on...

Sometimes though the loons are spectacularly stupid and you have to take time to laugh.

e.g A post following yours...

"There WILL be Obamavilles (with fewer and fewer cars) if automobile insurance continues to go up and everyone is legally mandated to purchase that too."

I don't know about you 12Bar but I have yet to reside in a state where automobile insurance wasn't mandated if you wish to drive legally. In fact here in Florida you have to sign a waiver with each license renewal stating that you have proper insurance coverage.

In most states you are required to have auto insurance. You cannot register a vehicle without proof of insurance. I have to show proof every 2 yrs here in NYC. Are there folks who drive without it? sure but they are few and far between thus the uninsured motorist fund.

Health insurance should be required since those that do not have it are free riders or wait till they get sick to purchase it. Read Matt Miller's piece today.

There WILL be Obamavilles (with fewer and fewer cars) if automobile insurance continues to go up and everyone is legally mandated to purchase that too.

I don't know about you 12Bar but I have yet to reside in a state where automobile insurance wasn't mandated if you wish to drive legally. In fact here in Florida you have to sign a waiver with each license renewal stating that you have proper insurance coverage.
-----------------------------------
Where I live, auto insurance is mandated.

It's just common sense (if one thinks about it), all other things being equal, that spreading the cost of risks across the LARGEST pool of persons, lowers the cost to everyone, assuming the chance of the risk occurring is random to the insured, but predictable to the insuror. You know, like 1 person in a thousand will contract thus and such. The insured doesn't know if he will be that one in a 1000, but the company can calculate the cost of that particular risk and spread it across the entire pool.

Read my post again. I said if "everyone (including those who do not own cars) is legally mandated to purchase that too." Under Obamacare, healthy people who do not need health insurance are going to be mandated.

"What's particularly interesting about this mailer is that the "Hooverville," of course, was a symbol of government inaction in the face of the poverty and widespread misery of the Great Depression."

This is actually something of a historical myth. Hoover wasn't inactive at all in responding. He launched the RFC and dramatically increased government spending, for example. It's been said with a lot of accuracy that much of what became the New Deal was started by Hoover.

BTW: I have no problem with individual STATES (you said "most" though) mandating auto or even health insurance -- the federal government, however, is not given that power under the Constitution -- the court case currently under way will prove that once and for all ; )

The reason that STRF et al hates me is because he didn't want people on this blog to know he'd been completely blocked and banned on the Fix just days before he showed up here. He doesn't want to me to point out his usual excuses ("I don't know the rules") and his history of changing his handle to avoid the monitors.

He doesn't want you to know how predictable he is.

He wants to dominate this blog 24/7 just like he did on the Fix. Did you know that he was often actively posting there every 10 minutes for 24 hours at a time?

Much of the time, 70% of the lines posted were his. An enterprising poster created a program to keep track of the vertical space per poster.

The blog owner, Chris Cillizza, publicly pleaded with him on the blog to knock it off. Nothing worked until he was blocked by IT.

@Liam "It is not mandated where Jake The Snake lives. The State Of Confusion."

That's some seriously funny snark. LMAO

@12Bar It's hard not to believe that STRF et al has a genuine mental problem. I say this without snark but with pity. He is incredibly aggravating, but unless he is actually getting paid to try and wreck a progressive blog he is literally a....

Insurance costs were going through the roof every year, even when Insurance Company death panels were allowed to drop who ever they wished, and only cover those they profiled as likely to stay healthy.

Higher cost whining now, is silly, since the costs have gone through the roof, every year, for the past ten years.

I'd say it's more to ensure money is there to cover expenses for the other newly insured, particularly those not old enough for Medicare, not to reduce overall costs."

One of the other posters said that younger people should be required to buy insurance b/c it will reduce costs. I'm saying that it won't reduce costs, but will ensure that the money is available to cover the cost of other other newly insured people who are older and likely sicker. Particularly those who might not have employer coverage but are not old enough for Medicare, those who would hit a lifetime limit or the pre-existing condition crowd.

Younger people paying premiums and drawing few benefits doesn't save money, but does help cover the anticipated new expenses from the larger pool of insured people and the new mandated benefit changes. They had to get the kids b/c they are needed them to pay the bills. I suppose they might help reduce premiums across the board, but i think that's unlikely.

more liberal bubulum stercus.
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Sorry skip but that point is not at all clear as the purpose of the mandate is to require the people that might choose not to get insurance (this would be the young and healthy) to purchase insurance. This, in fact, skip, is intended to reduce the cost of insurance overall. Hence 12Bar lamenting the lack of understanding from the right of the concept of risk pooling.

BTW, skip, what do you think of your boy Portman's latest social security scheme?
==============

Soooo, let's see here, the government basically reduces everyone's freedom to satisfy some ill defined need for "Social justice".

Just look at obamacare. What a disaster. How many other freedoms are now at risk? How will citizens ever come to grips with it?

And sure you can convince yourself that forcing people to do something against their will is "good for them" but is that the proper role of government?

And will it actually save money? I doubt it. Once people have coverage, even coverage the acquired against their will, they will begin to utilize it. Just watch. Nothing the government meddles in comes out as they predicted. This won't be any different.

Further, the other mandates contained in Obamacare will eat the life out of this nonsense you're touting. If this was such a windfall, why reduce Medicare by 500 bil?

Oh I don't have a problem with privatizing some or all of SS. I didn't have a problem when Bush first proposed it and I don't have a problem now. Tell me, oh sage liberal, how will what is being proposed differ from the deal that most gummint workers enjoy now?

How will what portman offers be different from STRS here in Ohio? If this is sooooo terrible, why did the teacher's unions fight so hard against Bush's proposal? Basically it all gets back to the underlying liberal agenda. They want "equality" all right. As long as some are more equal than others.

And whine all you like fellah. Portman has enjoyed a double digit lead for months. This week Quinnie released a poll showing Kasich up 10 on that fool Strickland. I guess ineptitude and corruption can only be hidden for so long.

bye bye incumbents. When the state loses 400K jobs on your watch, you should lose. Ohio is among the least business friendly states in the country yet the unions here are fighting hard to keep the Democrats in. If they get their wish America becomes nothing more than Greece writ large.

Higher cost whining now, is silly, since the costs have gone through the roof, every year, for the past ten years.
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Health care costs have been exceeding inflation for years, probably far longer than the past ten years. And health care coverage has been harder and harder to get. Those are the problems being addressed by HCR. HCR will have to be revisited a number of times to get the actual costs coming down and truly widespread coverage.

No one has a crystal ball in life. That's why it's called insurance. Even healthy people will get sick someday, it called spreading the risk. Not everyone owns or needs a vehicle.
45K die every yr because they have no health insurance.

BTW What passed was 93/94 Dole/Chaffee or a version of Romneycare. Both had individual mandate.

Read my post again. I said if "everyone (including those who do not own cars) is legally mandated to purchase that too." Under Obamacare, healthy people who do not need health insurance are going to be mandated.

in response to:
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Health care costs have been exceeding inflation for years, probably far longer than the past ten years. And health care coverage has been harder and harder to get. Those are the problems being addressed by HCR. HCR will have to be revisited a number of times to get the actual costs coming down and truly widespread coverage.
===========

Nothing in Obamacare will stop the rise in health care costs. In fact there are many reasons to believe that costs for everyone will rise.

As long as the deciders and the payors are seperate costs will rise.

did you know that according to the Castonguay report healthcare costs in Canada are rising faster than inflation?

did you know that according to the Castonguay report healthcare costs in Canada are rising faster than inflation?
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Do you have a link? Assuming your fact is correct, I would not be surprised. The goal is to get costs corralled (first), then headed down if possible. Remember that Canada's healthcare cost per person is $3900 while the U.S. spends about $7300 pp.

The "Moving America Forward GOTV Campaign Rally" here in Connecticut will take place at the Arena in Harbor Yard, 600 Main St, Bridgeport, CT. I suggest we camp out on the I-95 frontage road for maximum exposure.

(Liar-still was saying something about TOYOTA using the "Moving Forward" slogan ; )

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